Second Edition News for December 12, 1996

UCI Team Rankings -- Prospects for 1997

The final tally of team points that will be applicable for the 1997
season -- deciding entries to World Cup races and the Tour de France
-- will be published officially by the UCI on January 15 on the basis
of points totals on December 31 _and_ January 1.

The totals will be arrived at according to the following criteria:

(1)The points for each team are the total of the points of the team's
10 highest-scoring riders.

(2) Riders who have changed teams for the new season carry their
points with them to their new teams, but their points total is also
retained by their previous team provided that latter team retains at
least 50% of its previous season's strength.

(3) The December 31 total measures points for 1996 teams; the January
1 total measures points for 1997 teams. Each team is classified
according to whichever of these two totals is highest. (So, for
example, a team would benefit from the points of a rider or riders who
scored in 1996 but retired at the end of the season.)

for 1997, automatic qualification for the Tour de France goes to the
top-16-scoring teams (compared with the top 18 in 1996). Six wild
-card teams will be selected to make up the 22 teams after the Giro
d'Italia and Dauphine Libere. As last year, automatic qualification
for World Cup races goes to the 22 teams that make up Division 1.

There will be slight adjustments to the final standings of the teams
by December 31/January 1 but the list below gives a near-accurate
picture of the rankings for 1997. The biggest query remains Miguel
Indurain (1211 points) but whatever his decision the same teams will
be in Division 1 and the top 16 though not all in the order listed
below. Should he accept the recent offer from Polti that team would
move up from 7th to 3rd place, but if he were to go to ONCE that team
would still be in 2nd place. Whether or not he leaves Banesto his
points will stay with that team according to rule (2) above so
Banesto's position would stay the same.

It's of interest to note that Laurent Jalabert's 2019 points would
enable him to qualify in his own right as a Division 1 team, in 22nd
place! Moreover two-thirds of ONCE points 3992/7033 derive from
Jalabert and Alex Zulle (1973). Similarly, Tony Rominger (1358) and
Lance Armstrong (1315) provide half the points of the new Cofidis
team.